THIS IS WHERE YOU CAN GET THE MOST UPTO DATE AND CURRENT STUFF I AM WORKING ON-(sketches, drawings, paintings).

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 1

Number 1-A portrait for Toby Sharp and his wife.

On this day last month, I clocked 40, and I shared 40 works that changed my career on Facebook. But on this blog I have decided to show the works and the stories behind them in the days ahead, so stay tuned!

Mr & Mrs T. Sharp, 80 x 100cm, Oil on Canvas, 2008

This portrait came as a commission from the groom's father, who wanted a great wedding gift for his son and daughter-in-law. It's a tricky one, when it has to be a wedding picture and I have to work from the photo supplied. But to make this work I had to go their houses and sketch them from life. After spending 30 minutes to 1 hour sketching each of them, I then went on to take a series of pictures of my own in the poses they took in the photo supplied. This would help me understand their features better and some of their body language. So I combined this with my sketches while working on the portrait.

After completing, it went well the the groom's face but his dear wife had a few things to correct on hers. I got her over to the studio and had a good look at her face and I could see exactly what she wanted corrected, around the areas of her cheeks and jaw line. Once this was done, they both loved it!

I really enjoyed working on this piece because it had them with a landscape in the background. The landscape helped in tying the composition together. I could use the flowers to lead the eye too.

SPECIAL QUOTE"Think before you mix and place a brushstroke. Three precise strokes during a painting session are more productive than a hundred sloppy, unplanned, "spontaneous" ones. Think before you act." -John Howard Sanden

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WHAT INSPIRES ME TO KEEP SKETCHING

"Drawing is everything. When I was sixteen, I made over 400 drawings during that winter and spring. I drew mostly with a 2B pencil on typewriter paper. I drew during every spare moment. I’m heartened when I see your sketchbooks and see the way you’re always drawing at the Concept workshops. You remind me of me. When I was teaching university, I was disheartened by students who hadn’t paid their drawing dues, for unless you practice, you simply don’t know how to make lovely lines."-William Whitaker"Drawing is the basis of everything. All the way through the painting you must be questioning the drawing, right up to the very end. Otherwise you get the drawing right and fill it in with colour. As long as you get the effect you want, that's the important thing. You can use a piece of rag, a sable brush, a hoghair brush or a knife - it doesn't matter what."

PLEIN AIR

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Socrates on Brazil and their failure in the 2010 World Cup

"Brazilians are very creative and the way this team was, it was not like that".

"It was very predictable - we don't do things correctly like Europeans, we like to improvise.

"Football is an art and players should be allowed to show creativity. If the coach gives freedom to the players to play the way they know how, they can do it.

"If [painters] Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas had known when they were doing their work the level of recognition that they were going to have, they would not have done them the same. You have to enjoy doing the art and not think 'will I win?'".

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About Me

I am a little bloke with a big heart. I love the LORD cos he made me what I am today. I have a wonderful wife Ruth and a budding painter boy JOSH! He is 7 and a little girl who is 3!
I love sketching the human face, especially the people I meet from day to day, people I may never meet again!
So I sieze the opportunity, it's something that keeps me loving the place we all share.